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awy... alif or qaf?

A visitor to the web site contacted me recently to point out a mistake:
the Egyptian arabic word 'awy, which means 'very', was spelt 'awiأوي,
and he said that it should be spelt 'awiقـَوي.

For people from Cairo, the two are pronounced the same: both 'aأ and 'ق are
pronounced as a gluttal stop. Does it really make a difference, then? I asked a friend
from Cairo. "Of course it makes a difference!" he said. "If you write it with a qaf,
people will think that you are a bit strange". He went on to say that Qawiقـَوي is used only
as an adjective meaning 'strong'. I asked several other people from Cairo and Hurghada,
and they all insisted that awy is spelt with an alif

I checked all of the dictionaries from Cameron (1895) to Stevens and Sallib (2004),
and they all say that it's spelt with a qaf. Could they all be wrong?

There is an easy way to find the answer to all this: ask somebody from upper
Egypt. They pronounce a qaf as a g, not as a gluttal stop. I asked my neighbour's
doorman, who comes from Qina (or gina, as he says it), and he said gawy.

So the dictionaries are (or at least were) right- the word was spelt with a qaf,
and in upper Egypt they still spell it that way. But language changes all the
time- usually so slowly that nobody notices- and it is clear that as far as
Cairenes are concerned, 'awy is now spelt with an alif-hamza.